Duties of Clerical Superiors

Special Duties of Clerical Superiors from Divine Law.—(a) As individuals, they should strive to be personally more perfect than their subjects, for they are supposed to give an example in faith, religion, zeal, labor, and self-denial, “being made a pattern of the flock from the heart” (I Peter, v. 3).

(b) As rulers, they must have the virtues of good superiors, such as legal justice or firm devotion to the common good, distributive justice or avoidance of partiality and prejudice, prudence or knowledge of how to direct men and means successfully to the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and commutative justice or respect for the rights of subjects.

(c) As pastors, they must avoid the qualities of the wolf and of the hireling, and cultivate those of the good shepherd, being kind and amiable to Catholic and non-Catholic, and practising the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.